Friday, February 22, 2013

The rest of the EBEX team (Michele, Chappy, Joy, and myself) left McMurdo on Feb. 11th. We were fortunate enough to be on the first C-17 flight of 2013 from McMurdo, which meant it was relatively quick (5 hours instead of 8.5) and spacious. We were transported out to the Pegasus airfield by Ivan, which caused a moment of worry when the airbrakes suddenly engaged on the way down the hill from McMurdo out to the ice shelf. It was a good 5-10 minutes before the driver serendipitously got the airbrake disengaged after opening and reclosing the door (presumably the door is also operated by the same pneumatic system, so opening and closing the door seemed to have fixed something).

On the way out to the airfield, we passed by LDB where we saw that one of the payload buildings had already been moved up onto the snow berm where it will spend the winter. After arriving at Pegasus, we were able to watch the C-17 land and then taxi back towards us, at which point we were dropped off so that Ivan and the other transport (the Kress) could pick up the passengers from the flight and take them back to town. Then...we waited...for probably about an hour on the ice while they loaded cargo and did who knows what else. Once we boarded, Michele and I got two of the inward-facing jump seats on the right side of the plane (lots of legroom) while Chappy and Joy picked a pair of airline seats towards the front of the plane. After about a half hour, we were off and on our way back to New Zealand! I spent another 8 days in New Zealand and have been back in Minnesota for a couple days.

This will be the final update for this edition of EBEX In Flight -- I hope all that have followed along have enjoyed hearing about the campaign over the course of the 2012-2013 Austral summer.